Intersectoral AUDACE Fall 2019

Summary

Up to $100,000 over a period of 12 months, may be spread over 24 months

Duration :

1 year

Announcement of results :

April 2020

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Electronic forms are available in the E-Portfolio (FRQnet) of the applicant (FRQSC plateform). More details are available in the About FRQnet section.

NOTES

In the event of a discrepancy between the English and French versions of this program, the French version prevails.

This program refers to the Common General Rules(CGR), which are applicable to all programs of the Fonds de recherche du Québec. Any special terms and conditions applicable to the AUDACE program are indicated in this document, and these prevail over the CGR.

Version on June 30, 2019 subject to the approval of the ministre de l'Économie et de l'Innovation.

CONTEXT

Convinced that an intersectoral approach will open up novel research perspectives, introduce groundbreaking conceptual frameworks, cast new light on complex phenomena and provide innovative solutions to multidimensional issues, the Fonds de recherche du Québec invite members of the scientific community from all sectors (natural sciences and engineering, health sciences, humanities and social sciences, arts and literature) to address the major challenges facing Québec society, by viewing them through the prism of a truly joint, co-constructed, integrated approach.

AUDACE is part of significant efforts made over the last five years by the chief scientist of Quebec to foster intersectoral research through forums on research direction; periodic consultations with stakeholders from research, the public, private and political sectors and the artistic community; and by launching a wide-ranging process of reflection on creativity and intersectorality.

Launched in 2017, AUDACE was the first funding opportunity of the Directorate of Societal Challenges and Intersectoral Networks (DSMI) to come out of the funding programs focusing on intersectoral networking and on the advances that can be made by the cross-pollination of scientific knowledge, approaches and cultures. It is in line with the Support for innovative research and Support for innovative projects programs—which succeeded one another as part of FRQSC's programming between 2002 and 2013—, two funding offers that invited the community to propose projects that were out of the ordinary, innovative, and outside of the box. Drawing on lessons learned through these programs, AUDACE represents a firm commitment on the part of the three FRQ to support exploratory intersectoral initiatives with the potential to radically transform research and creation.

With this program, the FRQ are also seeking to restore Québec's position in the international shift toward High-Risk/High-Reward funding. AUDACE aims to provide researchers from the three major sectors covered by the Fonds with favourable conditions for initiating projects with a high level of risk and the potential for high impacts, be they scientific, social, economic, technological, cultural, aesthetic, etc. More specifically, Québec researchers are invited to submit proposals that:

Are in line with an intersectoral approach – in the sense that they involve collaboration between researchers from at least two of the three major sectors covered by the Fonds;

Dare to break with established frameworks and patterns of thought;

Are likely to produce radically innovative knowledge and have a high potential for impact.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

General objective

The objective of the AUDACE program is to support bold research that offers a departure from traditional approaches. For the purposes of this program, "bold" refers to the ability of the researchers and their project to go beyond the existing paradigms of their respective scientific cultures and fields of research – theories, practices, hypotheses, methods, and even modes of thought. The FRQ also wish to encourage innovative research proposals with a high potential to transform and to produce considerable impacts, regardless of their nature (scientific, social, economic, technological, cultural, aesthetic…).

Specific objectives

More specifically, through this program, the FRQ aim to:

Foster intersectoral networking by funding research projects at the crossroads of disciplines and sectors;

Provide funding for projects considered risky because of their boldness and which, due to their intersectoral nature, do not fall within the scope of the regular funding programs offered by each of the three FRQ.

By "intersectoral networking", the FRQ are referring to a research and collaboration approach which, in order to shed new light on common or shared research issues, brings together researchers from disciplinary fields or research practices from at least two of the three major sectors covered by the Fonds de recherche du Québec (Nature et technologies, Santé, Société et culture) to work on a research topic, problem, method or question. We are talking about going beyond the simple combination or juxtaposition of several disciplines and sectors (or even the instrumentalization of one discipline or sector by another) to resolve a problem or tackle a research topic. From an intersectoral perspective, disciplines and sectors must firmly engage in a joint, co-created "research approach" whose mode of operation lies outside of the hierarchization of fields of knowledge.